PayPal has stated that it’s “not pursuing an acquisition of Pinterest at this time,” effectively denying rumors of an imminent $45 billion acquisition first reported by Bloomberg. The one-line release doesn’t confirm or deny that the companies were ever in talks, but the response seems to end any possibility of a deal happening in the near future. Pinterest has yet to comment on the rumor.
The deal seemed odd at first glance, considering that PayPal’s banking and merchant business is far removed from a social network like Pinterest. PayPal recently acquired buy now, pay later provider Paidy and has gotten into cryptocurrency trading, but those things are at least related to its main business. However, Pinterest does have one commerce foothold with social shopping via pins that allow you to make purchases directly from the app.
